There I go, being impulsive again.

“Is this an ‘I’m not running so I have to make a drastic change’ thing?” my coworker (also a runner) asked.

“Yes. Yes, that is exactly what it is.”

She hit the nail on the head.

When I’m injured, I do impulsive things. I have to make a change. Right. Friggin. NOW.

I don’t know the psychology behind it, I just know that every time I’m benched for two weeks or more, I have to find something to change.

Last time I had a popliteus strain, I chopped 8 inches of my hair off and donated it to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths. I also got highlights, breaking a 6-year hiatus from any hair dye.

This time, I strolled into a tattoo and piercing parlor.

I’ve been wanting to get a daith piercing, which is the inner cartilage of the ear, because I’ve heard and read that this piercing reduces the frequency and severity of migraines and headaches.

A daith piercing

I figure, if it doesn’t work, at least I have a cute piece of a jewelry in a kind of unusual spot. And if it does work, it would be soooooo worth the pain and aftercare. I get migraines about once a month, and they’re completely debilitating. The auras leave me close to blind and the headache that follows is so bad it’s left me in tears before. My migraine medicine makes me nauseous.

But… I chickened out.

I may go back and get it done, but the 6-month or longer healing time and fear of pain (that cartilage is THICK!) was just too much.

So, I pierced my navel instead.

It’s cute. I dig it.

Upon returning to work (I did this on my lunch break), I told my coworkers I chickened out of the daith piercing but got my belly done instead. And that is when my coworker figured me all out: Running controls my impulses; not running leads me to do wacky things.

 

Anyone else have this problem?